1796
Year 1796 (MDCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1796 January - June * January 16 - First Dutch (and general) elections for the National Assembly of the Batavian Republic. The next Dutch general elections were in 1917. * February 1 - The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York. * February 9 - The Qianlong Emperor abdicates at age 84 to make way for his son, the Jiaqing Emperor. * March 9 - Widow Joséphine de Beauharnais marries General Napoléon Bonaparte. : Joséphine & Napoléon.]] * March 30 - Carl Gauss obtained conditions for the constructibility by ruler and compass of regular polygons and was able to announce that the regular 17-gon was constructible by ruler and compasses. *April 2 - The only night of would-be Shakespearean play of Vortigern and Rowena (actually written by William Henry Ireland) ends in audience's laughter. * April 12 - Battle of Montenotte. Engagement in the War of the First Coalition. Napoleon Bonaparte's first victory as an army commander. * April 27 - The Case of the Lyons Mail: during the night of April 27, five highwaymen attack the mail between Paris and Lyon, kill the postmen, and steal the funds sent to the armies in Italy. * May 10 **Persian Expedition of 1796: Russian troops storm Derbent. **Battle of Lodi. Engagement in the War of the First Coalition. Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte defeats Austrian rearguard in forcing a crossing of the bridge over the River Adda in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men, 14 guns, and 30 ammunition wagons. * May 14 - Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination. * May 15 - Napoleon's troops take Milan. * May 20 - Last mock Garrat Elections in Surrey, England. * June 1 - Tennessee is admitted as the 16th U.S. state. July - December * July 10 - Carl Friedrich Gauss discovered that every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most three triangular numbers. * July 11 - The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under the terms of the Jay Treaty. * July 14 - The de Portolá Expedition sets out from San Diego (now San Diego) to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey). * July 22 - Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party. * September 8 - French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Bassano - French forces defeat Austrian troops at Bassano. * September 17 - U.S. President George Washington issues his Farewell Address, which warns against partisan politics and foreign entanglements. *November: John Adams defeats Thomas Jefferson in the U.S. presidential election *November 4 - The Treaty of Tripoli (between the United States and Tripoli) is signed at Tripoli (see also 1797). * November 6 Old Style - Catherine II of Russia called Catherine "The Great" dies and is succeeded by her son Paul I of Russia. His wife Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg becomes Empress consort. * November 10 - The de Portolá Expedition returns from its terminus point (now Menlo Park) to San Diego after failing to find Vizcaíno's Port of Monterey (now Monterey). * November 17 - French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Arcole - French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy. * December 7 - U.S. Electoral College meets to elect John Adams president. Undated * The Ron Santa Teresa distillery is established in Venezuela. * British government purchase a 40 acre (162,000 m²) site at Norman Cross the first purposely built prisoner of war camp in England at that time. * Mungo Park visits Segu kingdom. * The British seize Ceylon from the Dutch. Ongoing events * French Revolution (1789-1799). * French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802)-First Coalition. Births * January 25 - William MacGillivray, Scottish naturalist and ornithologist (d. 1852) * February 22 - Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, Belgian mathematician (d. 1874) * March 18 - Jakob Steiner, Swiss mathematician (d. 1863) * May 1 - Junius Brutus Booth, English actor (d. 1852) * May 4 - Horace Mann, American educator and abolitionist (d. 1859) *June 14 - Nikolai Brashman, Russian mathematician of Czech origin (d.1866) * July 6 - Emperor Nicholas I of Russia (d. 1855) * July 16 - Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, French painter (d. 1875) * July 23 - Franz Berwald, Swedish composer (d. 1868) * August 15 - John Torrey, American botanist (d. 1873) * August 25 - James Lick, American land speculator (d. 1876) * September 19 - Hartley Coleridge, British poet (d. 1849) * September 22 - Davi Canabarro, Gaúcho rebel revolucionary (d. 1867) * September 25 - Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor (d. 1875) * October 23 - Stefano Franscini, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1857) * November 30 - Carl Loewe, German composer (d. 1869) : See also 1796 births. Deaths *January 13 - John H. D. Anderson, Scottish scientist and inventor (b. 1726) *February 23 - Jean-Nicolas Stofflet, French royalist general (executed) (b. 1751) *March 6 - Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French writer (b. 1713) *March 19 - Hugh Palliser, British naval officer and administrator (b. 1722) *May 12 - Johann Peter Uz, German poet (b. 1720) *May 29 - Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish politician (b. 1720) *June 11 - Samuel Whitbread, English brewer and politician (b. 1720) *June 21 - Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (b. 1710) *June 30 - Abraham Yates, American Continental Congressman (b. 1724) *July 16 - George Howard, British field marshal (b. 1718) *July 21 - Robert Burns, Scottish poet (b. 1759) *August 1 - Robert Pigot, British army officer (b. 1720) *August 21 - John McKinly, American physician and President of Delaware (b. 1721) *September 21 - François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French royalist general (killed in battle) (b. 1769) *October 7 - Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher (b. 1710) *November 6 - Catherine the Great of Russia (b, 1729) : See also 1796 deaths. External links * Chronology of 1796, mainly relating to Napoleon's campaign in Italy